Is Noted Surgeon Dr. Lewis Yocum Worthy of MLB Hall of Fame Enshrinement?

The baseball world lost a gem on Tuesday, as the Los Angeles Angels announced that team physician and renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lewis Yocum had passed away over the weekend at the age of 65. He had been battling liver cancer.

If you're a baseball fan, the name rings a bell. Medical people tend to stay in the shadows of the game, but Dr. Yocum's name had a way of popping up. Usually when a major injury problem surfaced, at which time he would be mentioned as the solution.

He was an important figure in baseball, to be sure. Important enough to make us seriously ponder a serious question: Is Dr. Yocum Hall of Fame material?

Some noteworthy supporters have already come forward, such as legendary baseball writer Peter Gammons:

Also in Yocum's corner is powerhouse agent Scott Boras:

This is not your usual call for so-and-so to be in the Hall of Fame. There are myriad of players in Cooperstown, as well as a solid handful of executives and managers. But as B/R's Will Carroll pointed out, there are no surgeons. There are no footsteps for Yocum to follow in.

However, surgeons aren't entirely off the Hall of Fame's radar. It was announced earlier this year that Dr. Frank Jobe, inventor of Tommy John surgery, will be honored during induction weekend in July. Cooperstown is going to pay homage to his impact on baseball, which is something that really should have been done years ago.

And while the Hall of Fame has never had to arrange a plaque for a surgeon before, it has arranged plaques for various pioneers who have come and gone over the years. That's a bill that fits Yocum well.

The story, as told by Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, goes that Yocum graduated from University of Illinois medical school in 1973 and began a fellowship at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic a few years later. He joined the clinic just a few years after Dr. Jobe performed the first-ever Tommy John operation on Tommy John himself in 1974.

Yocum then stepped in and advanced the surgery. According to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, Yocum simplified the procedure and made it shorter. In doing so, he earned the approval of his mentor.

"He could probably do the Tommy John operation better than I could," said Dr. Jobe.

Yocum's influence doesn't end there. Carroll credited Yocum for his research on the rotator cuff, which led to "thrower's ten" exercises that have helped reduce shoulder injuries. He also did some notable research on knees and elbows.

And over the years, Yocum came to be a go-to surgeon in baseball for pretty much any ailment. If there was a ballplayer who needed some sort of surgery, odds are he was going to end up in the hands of either Dr. Yocum or Dr. James Andrews.

Carroll put together a list of Yocum's more noteworthy clients, which includes names like Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kendrys Morales, Ted Lilly, Robb Nen, John Lackey, Francisco Liriano, Billy Wagner, Joakim Soria and Jake Westbrook.

But take a look around baseball today, and the two Yocum clients who are standing out the most are Washington Nationals right-handers Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann. 

Yocum performed Tommy John surgery on both Strasburg and Zimmermann, and they're now proving a point that he made to USA Today earlier this year: that things have gotten to a point where Tommy John surgery isn't such a major hurdle to overcome.

Strasburg has a 2.49 ERA, and he's really been picking up steam lately with only three earned runs allowed over his last 23 innings. Zimmermann, meanwhile, is tied for second in baseball with a 1.71 ERA. 

"He obviously saved my career," said Zimmermann, adding, "I wouldn't be here without him. He's saved a lot of guys careers. He's fixed a lot of guys and did a lot for the game of baseball."

Other players echoed similar sentiments. Here's Angels left-hander C.J. Wilson:

And Angels right-hander Jered Weaver, via Bill Shaikin:

The overwhelming sense of appreciation for Yocum and his work that's out there now brings into focus just how far the medical side of baseball has come.

It's thanks to doctors like him that baseball medicine has gone from being a decidedly crude affair to being a realm of exact science that has indeed saved many careers. Diagnosing and repairing major injuries is now just an ordinary, everyday part of the game. The list of injuries players can't come back from has gotten to be very short. 

At the very least, baseball owes a debt of gratitude to doctors like Yocum for what they've done to keep players on the field. And in light of the work Yocum did to further the knowledge of injuries and the many players—stars and scrubs alike—he treated over his career, he makes the grade as one of the more important figures in baseball over the last several decades.

There's a place for people with that many years of influential service to go, and it's Cooperstown. 

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